News In Focus
2 December 2009
Chair for pilot child abuse forum appointed
A chair and two commissioners have been appointed to lead a pilot forum testing ways for adult survivors of child abuse in residential care to talk about their experiences.
Appointed by the Public Health Minister , and supported by the Justice and Education ministers, the pilot forum's chair will be Tom Shaw, who previously lead a review of the systems for children in residential schools and children's homes from 1950 to 1995.
His Historic Abuse Systemic Review from 2007 had a significant impact on residential childcare in Scotland. The country's first Commissioner for Children and Young People, Kathleen Marshall, has been appointed as one of the commissioners who will sit with the chair. Consultant forensic clinical psychologist Anne Carpenter has been appointed as the other commissioner.
Ministers committed last year to examining the possibilities for a forum to give adult survivors who were abused as children in care the chance to speak about their experiences and help them come to terms with the past. More than 70 people and agencies responded to a Scottish Government consultation, overwhelmingly supporting a pilot forum. It will begin hearing from survivors in spring next year.
The chair will lead discussions - through an advisory group including survivors and other stakeholders - on how the pilot forum will be established and its timescale. A human rights framework is also being designed by the Scottish Human Rights Commission. Before the pilot forum begins information sessions will be held with individuals and groups who have an interest in its work. A report on the pilot forum is anticipated early in 2011.